Powerful conservative officials allegedly knew about Matt Schlapp’s gay sexual misconduct

The people in charge of what used to be the biggest event of the year for the conservative movement, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), knew about several instances of chairman Matt Schlapp sexually abusing younger men but did nothing about it, according to a lawsuit filed by Carlton Huffman, a Republican campaign staffer who claims to be one of Schlapp’s victims.

The lawsuit alleges that in one 2017 incident, Schlapp tried to kiss a male employee without his consent. In a separate incident, during a fundraising trip in Florida in 2022, Schlapp allegedly took off all his clothes (except his underwear) and rubbed himself against another man without his consent. The lawsuit alleges that the American Conservative Union (ACU), which runs CPAC, knew about his behavior and did nothing to stop him or remove him from power.

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“ACU previously was notified and aware of Matthew Schlapp’s propensity for unlawful sexual assault and battery, including at least two prior incidents of similar conduct,” the lawsuit, in an updated filing from last week, reads. “ACU was negligent in its continued employment of Matthew Schlapp in a prominent leadership role.”

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The lawsuit names both Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, as defendants, along with the ACU. The lawsuit also accuses Matt and Mercedes Schlapp of defamation. She denies the allegation.

Earlier this year, Huffman, a staffer who worked on Herschel Walker’s failed 2022 Senate campaign, accused Schlapp, who is married to a woman and chairs the arch-conservative event, of sexually assaulting him while he was driving Schlapp back to his hotel from a bar.

Huffman said Schlapp “groped” and “fondled” his genitals in the car and that his actions were “sustained and unwanted and unsolicited.” Schlapp denied the accusations but admitted to going to two bars with Huffman that night. Schlapp claimed that the accusations made him and his family suffer “unbearable pain and stress.”

Then another male CPAC employee accused Schlapp of trying to kiss him without consent, and a third man alleged an unwanted physical advance.

The accusations led to the downfall of CPAC, with multiple board members resigning after the accusations became public. Half of CPAC’s staff has left the organization since 2021. One board member who resigned said that the organization had paid $1 million in legal fees up until August.

Schapp blamed the accusations on “fake journalists” and said that criticism was coming from “those with an ax to grind.”

CPAC has always been a hotbed of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Donald Trump Jr., and the former president himself have all launched diatribes against the trans community at CPAC in recent years.

When Richard Grenell, the gay former ambassador to Germany, shared the experience of Gina Roberts, a trans woman who attended CPAC with the Log Cabin Republicans during a speech in 2021, he was denounced for showing support for trans people. GOP celebrity activist Caitlyn Jenner was repeatedly heckled, stalked, deadnamed, and ridiculed when she attended when she ran in the California gubernatorial race as a Republican.

The gay conservative group GOProud, which is now defunct, was banned from the event. One of the group’s former leaders later left the Republican party.

Huffman is asking for $9.4 million from the Schlapps and $3.7 million from the ACU in punitive damages and costs.